Tonomus, the first subsidiary of Neom, a region in Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea coast described as 'building a future fuelled by the power of cognitive technology', has announced the opening of its first digital communications facility.

Senegal’s telecoms authority revealed it had provisionally given Sonatel (Orange Senegal) a 5G licence, after concluding a call for tender to extend concessions for operators. 

Israel’s Pelephone – the mobile unit of Bezeq – has been awarded 800MHz of spectrum in the 26GHz band by the committee in charge of the tender process.

SLA Digital, which works with many of the world’s major mobile operators to power mobile revenues through carrier billing and mobile identity, has partnered with Vietnam-headquartered Viettel Business Solutions Corporation (Viettel Solutions) – a member of Viettel Group – for carrier billing.

Is India about to relax its data storage rules? A widely reported (though as yet unconfirmed by government) new draft version of a planned privacy bill seems to indicate that it is.

Latin America and Caribbean-focused multilateral development bank IDB Invest says it has closed a standby letter of credit for about US$47.5 million to service provider Colombia Móvil (aka Tigo) to support the expansion and upgrade of telecommunications infrastructure in small municipalities in Colombia.

Portuguese telecoms regulator ANACOM has announced that it is working with the Cape Verdean communications regulator ARME on the installation of a remote station on the island of Boa Vista to improve its spectrum monitoring system.

Laser Light, the owner and operator of an emerging global optical platform and WIOCC, a major player in the deployment of carrier-scale, future-proofed network infrastructure into Africa, have signed a five-year US$129 million master services agreement.

Uganda has reversed a parliamentary decision to abandon a new tax law that imposes a 5% levy on income earned locally by foreign companies. The tax law had been debated and dropped in May. However, President Yoweri Museveni has now signed a bill that includes the levy clause.

Malaysian operator Maxis announced it will sign an access agreement with state 5G wholesaler Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) to advance the country’s 5G rollout and remain competitive against rivals who have signed.

MTN Rwanda has partnered with data-driven platform Bboxx in a bid to increase smartphone access across Rwanda, accelerating the country’s digital agenda.

Oi Brasil, the cash-strapped Brazilian operator, has now seen a significant influx of revenue after completing the sale of selected tower infrastructure to Empreendimentos e Participacoes, an affiliate of comms infrastructure group Highline.

Belgium-based operator group Proximus acquired a 58% stake in Indian cloud enterprise company Route Mobile for INR59.2 billion (US$721 million), a strategic move to enhance its digital communications.

Nokia trimmed its sales and profit forecast for 2023 blaming a tightening economic landscape for cutting customer budgets.

Satellite networking technology, solutions and services company Gilat Satellite Networks has announced that it has won an award worth millions of dollars in orders for a project in Mexico involving cellular backhaul over satellite.

Citing the need for Kenya to be an attractive investment digital hub, Kenya is repealing a ruling that would have made meant only companies with at least 30% substantive Kenyan ownership, either corporate or individual, would be licensed to provide ICT services.

A decision by Croatia’s regulator to remove restrictions on dominant player Hrvatski Telekom (HT) looks set to provoke a backlash from smaller competitors in the country’s fixed broadband sector.

MTN subsidiary Bayobab has secured a contract to manage, operate and maintain national fibre infrastructure in the Central African Republic.

Telekom Malaysia (TM) confirmed hackers breached its defences with the private information of customers from broadband provider unit Unifi affected.

Chilean operator Entel will begin gradually shutting down its 2G network in 2024 to focus on developing its 4G and 5G networks.

MTN tapped Ericsson to deploy sites to deliver affordable mobile broadband coverage to remote locations in Benin.

Vodacom announced it will invest ZAR500 million (US$27.4m) into its network and power backup across the Eastern Cape of South Africa in its 2023/24 financial year, as part of plans to expand its 5G network.

SIGET (Superintendencia General de Electricidad y Telecomunicaciones), the telecommunications regulating agency in El Salvador, has issued a new resolution which aligns it with the growing number of countries that have completely freed up the 6GHz band for use in WiFi 6E networks.

US-based neutral host and telecom infrastructure company Torrecom plans to expand its tower portfolio in Latin America with the help of multilateral development bank IDB Invest.

Orange Jordan claimed to be the first to launch commercial 5G services in the country and was the second Orange unit in the Middle East and North Africa to deploy next-generation connectivity.

Mongolian service provider Mobicom Corporation has started using NEON-dX, the full stack customer value management (CVM) software as a service (SaaS) from Flytxt, a provider of AI-powered customer lifetime value (CLTV) maximisation solutions.

Satellite operators Rivada Space Networks and IEC Telecom have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enable what are described as innovative connectivity solutions for a number of purposes – including remote and humanitarian communications.

Globe says it is the first communications service provider in the Philippines to deploy the end-to-end (E2E) network slicing function of 5G standalone (SA).

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) responded to a media report criticising the body for not enforcing cheaper broadband services, since a new mandate took effect in March.

Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, has withdrawn from a U$19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with Indian conglomerate Vedanta.

African telecommunications and network company Paratus, and Ceragon Networks, a provider of innovative wireless backhaul and fronthaul solutions, have signed a multi-year agreement to provide high-capacity wireless offshore communication solutions to the oil and gas industry in Namibia, Angola and Mozambique.

Challenger Guyanese operator ENet has launched a range of new mobile services unlimited data, calls and text on its 4G/5G network nationwide to compete against its large-scale rivals.